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America's most endangered rivers

The Colorado River was today named the Most Endangered River in an annual American Rivers report. It doesn't call pollution the problem. It instead cites drought and demand. The Colorado River is endangered by outdated water management that is inadequate to respond to the pressures of over-allocation and persistent drought.

American Rivers is calling on Congress to fund programs that encourage 21st century water management, while protecting rivers and the people, communities, and wildlife they support across the Colorado Basin.

Pictured here with ring marking the high water line, a recreational boat approaches Hoover Dam as it makes its way along Black Canyon on Lake Mead, the Colorado River's largest reservoir.

Homes dot the hills on the southwest side of Lake Mead, in Boulder City, Nev. Water levels of the man-made lake, which was created by the damning of the Colorado River at Black Canyon, are expected to drop this summer.

Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP

A patrol boat makes its way upstream along the Colorado River in Black Canyon just south of Hoover Dam, near Willow Beach, Ariz.

Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP

The Colorado River flows through Black Canyon just south of Hoover Dam, near Willow Beach, Ariz.

Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP

Hikers make their way along the banks of the Colorado River in Black Canyon.

Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP

The high water mark for Lake Mead is seen on Hoover Dam and its spillway, near Boulder City, Nev.

Credit: Julie Jacobson/AP

The Colorado River is a lifeline in the desert

Credit: Jim Rorabaugh

Demand on the Colorado River

Credit: BLM

The Colorado River.

Credit: BLM

The Colorado River is often called one of the most controlled and plumbed rivers on the planet.

Credit: Peter Raabe

The Colorado River is the lifeline of the Southwest, and is truly the economic foundation of a significant portion of the western United States.

Credit: Peter Raabe

Georgia's Flint River provides water for over one million people, 10,000 farms, unique wildlife, and 300 miles of exceptional fishing and paddling.

Credit: Jim Farmer

Flint River has traditionally been a wet area of the country but in recent years many Flint River tributaries are drying up completely and the river's low flows have dropped dramatically.

Credit: Chris Drummond

The San Saba River is a scenic waterway located on the northern boundary of the Edwards Plateau in Texas. Flows of sparkling, clear water course through limestone bluffs and hills, supporting fish, wildlife, and recreation. Through wasteful water use and unregulated pumping, irrigators are transforming a vibrant, pristine river into a dried-up riverbed.

Credit: Robb Kendrick

The Little Plover River flows six miles from clear, cold springs before joining the Wisconsin River. However, dramatic increases in groundwater withdrawals have reduced river flows. Once prized for native brook trout and popular with anglers, the river

Credit: Amy Thorstenson

In the past decade, portions of the Little Plover River were repeatedly sucked dry, making the river the unfortunate poster child for Wisconsin's inadequate groundwater management.

Credit: Jim Gifford/Friends of the Little Plover River

Millions of people in the Southeast depend on the Carolinas' Catawba River in for drinking water and recreation. However, storage ponds for coal ash, a byproduct of power generation, are threatening the river and local water supply with pollution.

Credit: Jeff Cravotta

The 1.1 million-acre Boundary Waters Canoe Area Wilderness in Minnesota is the most popular wilderness area in the country. The South Kawishiwi River, which flows into the Boundary Waters, is threatened by copper-nickel mining proposals by Twin Metals Minnesota and others on adjacent unprotected public lands.

Credit: Jim Brandenburg

Oregon's Rough & Ready and Baldface Creeks, tributaries of the Wild and Scenic Illinois and North Fork Smith rivers, flow clean and clear through some of the wildest country in the West. These eligible Wild and Scenic Rivers are celebrated by wildflower enthusiasts and hikers. Unfortunately, nickel mines threaten to destroy these unique, wild streams.

Credit: Barbara Ullian

One of our country's wildest rivers, the Kootenai River provides critical habitat for several rare and threatened native fish species, as well as wildlife like grizzly bear and woodland caribou. However, the river, which runs through Idaho is threatened by runoff and waste from current mining and proposed expansions of five open-pit coal mines along the Elk River in British Columbia, Candada, tributary to the Kootenai.

Credit: Garth Lenz

Alabama's Black Warrior River is a valuable resource for drinking water, recreation, fishing, and rare fish and wildlife. However, the river's Mulberry Fork is threatened by the Shepherd Bend Mine, a 1,773 acre coal mine which would discharge polluted wastewater only 800 feet from a major drinking water intake.

Credit: Nelson Brooke

The Niobrara River, which runs through Nebraska, South Dakota and Wyoming, is an oasis for paddlers, anglers, and wildlife. A major tributary of the Missouri River, the lower portion of the Niobrara is protected as a federal Wild and Scenic River. The Lower Niobrara is increasingly threatened by too much sediment backing up in the upper reaches of Lewis and Clark Lake behind the Missouri River's Gavins Point Dam.

Credit: State of South Dakota

The Wild and Scenic Merced River is a special destination for paddlers, anglers, and hikers, and is home to a variety of fish and wildlife, including a rare salamander. These outstanding values are threatened by a proposal to raise the New Exchequer Dam, which would flood a stretch of river and wildlife habitat.